Six of the seven candidates vying for two open seats in the Nov. 5 Bluffton Town Council election participated Thursday evening in a forum where they discussed several of the critical issues currently surrounding the town.

Roughly 40 people attended the forum, which was hosted by the League of Women Voters of Hilton Head Island/Bluffton Area at Town Hall and featured incumbents Oliver Brown and Mike Raymond as well as challengers Fred Hamilton, Garfield Moss, Larry Toomer and Charlie Wetmore. Challenger Gary Bensch did not attend because of a prior engagement.

The most prevalent discussion centered around a growing dissonance in regard to new development in Old Town, particularly the increase in music being played on Calhoun Street at night, parking concerns and their effect on residential areas.

Moss, Toomer and Wetmore all expressed disappointment that while the town had planned for Calhoun Street to be the center of the town, it was not intended to be a source of unwelcome noise and parking problems.

“If the residents of Lawrence Street and Calhoun Street had realized it was going to be as destructive as it is with the noise, we would never have supported (the development),” Moss said.

Wetmore echoed those thoughts, adding that council has been one of inaction.

“We planned for and wanted a mixed-use zone, and now we’re at a crossroads, and we need a clear direction on what to do,” Wetmore said. “We need a noise ordinance that has a clear and measurable way of telling whether noise coming from a business is excessive. Residents have been coming to council meetings for three months now and have been told nothing. It’s not right, and it’s something we need to attack quickly.”

The other three candidates took a more pragmatic tone, calling for more negotiations between residents, merchants and the town.

“That should have been done years ago, and it’s time to sit down and have a decent, honest and workable discussion,” Hamilton said. “We have a live-and-work community, and the two must coexist.”

When asked if they would support an amendment to the town’s noise ordinance banning amplified music from outdoors at night, except by special permit, all the candidates except Raymond — a nightime Old Town musician himself — said they would while insisting that a solution be reached. Raymond said that while he shared their concern, there are other alternatives to completely banning amplified music outdoors and cautioned against potentially alienating merchants.

“There are things you can do to mitigate the sound and baffle the bass and drums, which are the two main problems,” he said. “We have a new synergy taking place in our historic district, but it’s a very delicate balance, and if we go pushing and pulling on it, it could collapse very easily.”

Concerning parking issues, Moss chastised the town’s hiring of outside contractors to conduct a study aimed at finding a longterm solution to the problem.

“We have a qualified staff who make an enormous amount of money and should do the study for us,” he said. “And I don’t think the tax payers should assume the costs of this. The bars are the ones having the parking problems, and I think they should do the study and then prove to us they’re able to have their business there.”

Toomer called for the town to purchase property and build a public parking lot.

“We’re behind the eight-ball on this. There’s no way everybody’s going to survive, especially with all the new businesses that are already approved coming in, forcing people to park miles away,” he said.

The candidates found more common ground on balancing rapid residential development with environmental concerns.

Brown said the town needed to take the right steps in preserving the May River.

“We need to stay away from the estuaries, make smaller footprints on the ground and have zero storm water runoff,” he said. “The May River is a nursery. Life grows out of the marshes and flows down the river. It’s up to us to become stewards and not impact it in any adverse way.”

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I am proud to say I live in a town that the biggest problem facing the public is a little noise from the local watering hole. This sounds like an HOA meeting. Better yet, this town council is nothing more than an HOA board for the Old Town.

If it wasn't for the success of Calhoun Street, we would have only heard crickets at last night's meeting. Here's to progress in the Old Town! Love it or leave it, I say. The Town chose to go the mixed-use/new urbanist approach to planning the Old Town..well guess what? The chickens have come home to roost. When you live in an urban/mixed use area, you have to expect a little noise and, God forbid, annoying people. Why do you think suburbia has been so successful in the US? People wanted to get away from the noise, crime, pollution and annoying people. Well, they found quiet solitude in suburbia. If you can't handle the noise, people, progress and commerce...it's time to move somewhere else.

Those people who are complaining have lived there all of their lives before anybody turned those homes into galleries or a business and Sanddollar you are asking them to move because they want their peace? You are an ignoramus.

The others who are playing loud music are just inconsiderate to others, keep it inside. We know there is a buddy system in the Town Council and the people who own the businesses. If you elect Larry Toomer to the town council you will see even more of a buddy system. His business got an award from the Hilton Head-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce who get hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers money a year but we do not even know how they spend it. If anything we need more transparency when it comes to Chambers. They are asking for 600,000 or more this year, for what ? Now there is a discussion we need at the town and county meetings.

People, we have an empty parking lot over by the post office, that is where they should have put the farmers market in the first place. This space has not been occupied for 5 years now. You can at least, use it for parking and put parking meters.

Thank you, BT, for covering this event. The League of Women Voters of Hilton Head Island/Bluffton Area especially appreciates your mentioning our role in presenting it.

For those who may not know, the LWV of Hilton Head Island first met more than 30 years ago and was pleased to add Bluffton Area to our name in May 2011. The League is a nonpartisan organization and welcomes all citizens as members. The League is NOT for women only.

The difference is that in the past when Bluffton was a small town, stores and restaurants closed their doors around 8 PM and all day Sundays and the town was quiet. Night life is a recent invention of development and transplants from other areas.